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Now, as well as being an athletics arena holding over 6,000 spectators, it hosts both Manchester City's reserve teams. The playing surface looks excellent and is therefore a good facility for the cash rich club, but for spectators the view is not good as the seats are one wide athletics track plus one long jump track away from the near touchline.
Not as though that is of any excuse when reporters can't get things right. For first team games Clarets Mad has guest reporters. I ask little of them other than getting the basic facts correct i.e. the score. They do, every single time. So does Andy Ashworth when he does the youth reports.
It's basic really, but last night this site's editor was informing people via the message board that we'd fallen behind as early as the second minute in this game, some time later having to apologise when informed by those around him that the shot had actually gone wide.
There was just over a minute gone so we'll start with this incident. David Ball, the league's leading scorer, was put clear and I saw his shot hit the net. Instead of looking up to see them celebrate and the game restart from the centre spot I went to the message board to give people the update.
The shot had actually gone wide, hit the shot put net behind the goal and fallen onto the goal netting but from behind. Speaking to others at half time I wasn't the only one to think it had gone in, but I think I was the only one who took almost half an hour to realise it hadn't.
So it was still 0-0 but that should have changed in the 20th minute when the referee, very harshly in my view, awarded City a penalty for a foul by Christian Kalvenes. It was some time before we actually realised he'd given the spot kick.
Diego Penny got down well to his right to save but as we celebrated the man in the middle was pointing to the spot again. Whether he thought someone had encroached or whether he thought Diego had come off his line I don't know, but it didn't matter because this time he went down to this left and saved Ball's second effort.
Seven minutes later the game had turned on its head with Burnley going 2-0 up. From a Joe McKee corner the ball was knocked down in the box by David Edgar and Wes Fletcher was quick to turn it in for his first goal in the Premier Reserve League.
He didn't have to wait too long for his second either, that came four minutes after the first. It owed much to the poor goalkeeping of Gunnar Neilson who failed to hold a Brian Easton cross and predator Fletcher was in to double the lead.
Joe McKee came ever so close to making it three but after breaking into the box just couldn't quite get his shot away.
Back at the other end our Peruvian goalkeeper had looked in very good form. Apart from the penalty saves he'd made one other good save and in quick succession made two more. One of them in particular was an outstanding save.
Right on half time it looked as though City had got back into it but Ben Hoskin was there to clear off the line and we went in with a two goal advantage.
We were much the better side in the opening stages and could so easily have increased our lead two or three times. Penny almost capped a man of the match performance with a goal of his own. His kick up field went over his hapless counterpart Neilson but went just wide.
As the half wore on so the home side came more and more into it. Penny again did well on a couple more occasions but then we nearly capped it with a third and what a goal it would have been.
Michael King, on as a substitute, got a superb ball into the box from the right hand side. Fletcher was on to it but just couldn't quite control his half volley and the ball went agonisingly wide.
Just as the points looked wrapped up with the game deep into stoppage time, City finally got the ball past Penny and pulled a goal back. They got clear to right of centre and Robert Mak slotted the ball past the keeper who really had deserved to keep a clean sheet.
It was a good performance overall from the Clarets, against a Manchester City team that even included a member of U2, but there is no doubt that the performances of Penny and Fletcher stand out, and rightly so. The win has moved us up to fifth in the table.
It's two weeks to the next game when we play only our second game at Accrington. This will be against Wigan who will probably have our summer target James McCarthy in their line up.
Last night's teams were;
Manchester City: Gunnar Neilson, Kieran Trippier, Greg Cunningham, Dedryck Boyata, Ben Mee, Michael Johnson (Andrew Tutte 68), Robert Mak, Adam Clayton (Paul Marshall 68), David Ball, Alex Nimely (Abdisalam Ibrahim 68), James Poole. Subs not used: Tobias Johansen, Jack Redshaw.
Burnley: Diego Penny, Ben Hoskin, Nik Kudiersky, David Edgar, Christian Kalvenes (Michael King), Richard Eckersley, Alex-Ray Harvey, Brian Easton, Joe McKee (Dom Knowles 75), Fernando Guerrero, Wes Fletcher. Subs not used: Jonathan Lund, Jake McEneaney, Oliver Devenney.